Tulia, Texas
Tulia is a city in and the county seat of Swisher County, Texas. The population of the city is 4,967. Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is: 48.16% Hispanic or Latino (2,392) 41.61% White (2,067) 8.60% Black or African American (427) 1.63% Other (81) 27.0% (1,341) of Tulia residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Tulia has generally low rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The city reported 2 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 0.53 murders a year. Pokemon See the Swisher County page for more info. Fun facts * Tulia gained notoriety following a drug sting in July 1999 that rounded up 46 people, 40 of whom were innocent African Americans. The remaining detainees were Whites known to have ties within the black community, and in fact lived in the "Black" part of town. Nearly one-third of Tulia's Black males were arrested, about 15% of the town's Black population. All charges were based on the word of undercover officer Tom Coleman, a so-called "gypsy cop" who made his living traveling through impoverished rural Texas offering to work undercover cheaply for short periods of time for underfunded police departments. Coleman claimed to have made over 100 drug buys in the small town. He never recorded any of the sales, but claimed to have written painstaking notes on his leg under his shorts and upper arm under his shirt sleeve when nobody was looking. During the roundup, no large sums of money, illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, or illegal weapons were found. The accused drug dealers showed no signs of having any income associated with selling drugs. The drugs Coleman claimed to have bought from the accused did not have the fingerprints of the accused on them or their baggies. No independent witnesses could corroborate Coleman's claims. In his testimony, Coleman gave inaccurate descriptions of the "dealers" from whom he had allegedly bought cocaine. One suspect had his charges dropped when he was able to prove he had been at work during the times he had supposedly sold Coleman cocaine. Another produced bank and phone records indicating she was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the time of her alleged crime. Many of the accused, however, seeing the long sentences dealt by all-white juries in earlier cases, pleaded guilty in return for lighter sentences, despite their proclaimed innocence. The remaining defendants were convicted solely on the basis of Coleman's testimony. The Texas Department of Public Safety awarded "Lawman of the Year" to Coleman. ** Amarillo civil rights attorney Jeff Blackburn began investigating the Tulia defendants' cases, along with civil rights organizations and a handful of attorneys from firms around the country. Eventually, the case became a cause célèbre, and money was raised to legally challenge the cases. Many had already served several years in prison before this process gained momentum. By 2004, Blackburn and his team had freed most of the "Tulia 46" and a $6,000,000 collective settlement was reached to avoid further litigation in civil court. Local authorities remain defiant, promising their town will not become a "slot machine" in the face of a new lawsuit stemming from an alleged incident of police brutality during the sweep. * Tulia doesn't have much to offer. It has a Pilot truck stop, Nintendo World, Pizza Hut, Sonic Drive-In, Subway, a few motels, Lowe's Market, dollar stores, a municipal airport, a little bit of local restaurants and businesses, a sports complex, a few public battle fields, NAPA Auto Parts, the county museum, MacKenzie Park, a public swimming pool, and not much else. Category:Texas Cities